Innumerable varieties of elongate flexible materials, such as cord, cable, chain, twine, electrical wire of various types, etc., are commonly provided to the consumer in the form of coiled rolls. Many such materials, particularly in the form of longer and/or heavier coils, can be cumbersome to manipulate and dispense. An example of such is Romex® electrical wiring, which is formed of two or more solid strands of insulated copper wire encased in a relatively heavy plastic sheath. Much wiring of stationary structures (e.g., homes, small businesses, etc.) is done with three conductor Romex® type wire, comprising two conducting wires and a ground wire. Such three-conductor wire, particularly in larger diameter gauges, is awkward to manipulate and dispense for any given length of the material.
Most such wire is provided in boxes or plastic wrap in relatively shorter lengths of up to two hundred fifty feet or so. The packaging provides for the dispensing of the wire therefrom by opening a hole in the center of the packaging and drawing the wire from the center of the roll or coil outwardly through the hole. In practice, this technique does not work out particularly well. Since the wire is coiled in its packaging and is relatively stiff, the wire twists with each loop that is drawn from the packaging and must be untwisted before proper installation. The alternative is to rotate the package as the wire is withdrawn, which is also a tedious procedure. Moreover, as the wire is used, the package becomes quite light, and the stiffness of the wire (particularly in heavier gauges) results in the wire resisting its withdrawal from the packaging and dragging the entire package around. Longer lengths of wire (e.g., one thousand feet) are normally provided on large spools, but much the same problems exist when dispensing wire from such large spools as well.
While such boxed or packaged rolls or coils of electrical wiring are relatively compact, at least in shorter lengths, the various spools, reels, and caddies developed in the past for such wire rolls are not particularly compact. Most stationary structures are constructed with wall studs spaced sixteen inches on-center in order to position every third vertical stud four feet apart from one another, the standard width of a sheet of wallboard, plywood, etc. used in construction. This results in a space or passage of only fourteen and one-half inches between the faces of adjacent studs when standard “two-by-four” studs of one and one-half inch thickness are used. While a packaged roll or coil of wire in a relatively shorter length may be passed between adjacent wall studs, the problem remains of twisting and tangling of the wire as it is dispensed from the packaging.
Thus, a dispenser for coiled materials solving the aforementioned problems is desired.